FOX Sports 1 has its big launch sorted out

Good news for those of you who kinda sorta wanna watch this Saturday’s FOX Sports 1 UFC card! FOX has managed to wrangle out deals with DirecTV, The Dish Network, and Time Warner Cable so a nice phat 100 million people will have access to the channel’s launch.

The three carriers — satellite broadcasters DirecTV and Dish and cable operator Time Warner Cable — all have agreed to carry Fox Sports 1 when it launches. Those three distributors combined reach over 40 million homes.

A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said it would have the channel on its systems when it launches. However, final distribution contracts are still being hammered out with all three companies.

It was kinda scary leading up to this – insiders all agreed that this would probably get resolved at the last second, but considering FOX’s high carriage demands – 80 cents per subscriber, up from the 23 cents when the channel was SPEED – it wasn’t a sure bet by any stretch. Consider this: Time Warner is currently in a similar carriage fee spat with CBS that has resulted in them pulling the network from their roster. CB mafakin S! And during NFL preseason time no less. So it is joyous news to hear that things have been sorted out and you’ll probably be able to find Chael Sonnen and Shogun Rua duking it out somewhere in the upper reaches of your channel guide.

All yous Canadians out there – the event will be featured on Sportsnet 360 and TVA Sports. Hope you’ve got a good cable package.